1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toner container for containing toner for use in electrophotographic system-based image formation, and to an image forming apparatus in which the toner container is detachably and attachably mounted.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a plurality of photoconductive drums for transferring a toner image to a recording sheet is mounted in an image forming apparatus in such a fashion as to correspond to a duplication speed, a plurality of kinds of toners are used to correspond to the photoconductive drums. Therefore, containers having various capacities and various systems must be prepared as developer containers for containing the toners. In the case of a full-color image forming apparatus, for example, four kinds or four colors of toners are necessary and four developer containers for containing the each toner are mounted. It is therefore necessary to identify which developer container contains which toner.
According to a first related art disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 1-232360 (1989) (page 3, FIGS. 3 and 4), for identifying the toners contained, a reflecting seal is applied onto a cartridge for containing a specific toner, but the reflecting seal is not applied onto a cartridge for containing an ordinary toner. A cartridge sensor mounted to a main body of a copying machine irradiates the cartridge mounted with rays of light, judges that the cartridge contains the specific toner on detecting that the rays of light are reflected, and thus identifies the toners.
According to a second related art disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 2-72381 (1990) (pages 2 and 3, FIG. 1), a memory device for storing information of a toner contained and electrodes connected to the memory device are attached to a container for containing the toner. A main body of an apparatus to which the container is mounted, is provided with reading means connected to the electrodes in the state where the container is mounted, for reading the information stored in the memory device.
According to a third related art disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 10-142913 (1998) (page 3, FIGS. 2 and 3), a cylindrical cartridge driven for rotation about an axis is provided with a semiconductor memory member for storing information of toners contained. An apparatus main body to which the cartridge is mounted is provided with detection means for detecting the information stored in the semiconductor memory member of the cartridge mounted.
According to a fourth related art disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 10-207209 (1998) (page 3, FIGS. 3 to 5), a cylindrical cartridge driven for rotation about an axis is provided with a semiconductor memory member for storing information of toners contained and conductive terminals connected to the semiconductor memory member and wound throughout the full outer periphery of the cartridge. An apparatus main body to which the cartridge is mounted is provided with conductive terminals coming into contact with the conductive terminals of the cartridge mounted and driven for rotation and a CPU communicating with the semiconductor memory member through both conductive terminals.
According to a fifth related art disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 2000-137417 (pages 4 to 5, FIG. 1), a bar code representing information of toners contained onto an outer peripheral surface of a cylindrical toner bottle driven for rotation about an axis, is recorded. A printer main body to which the toner bottle is mounted is provided with an optical sensor for optically reading the bar code of the rotating toner bottle.
When the toner cartridge and the container for containing the toner is still as in the first and second related arts, it is easy to detect reflected light from the reflecting seal bonded to the toner cartridge or to connect the electrodes and the reading means.
In the toner cartridge according to the third related art, however, the semiconductor memory member rotates with the toner cartridge and the construction of the image forming apparatus for connecting such a semiconductor member to the detection means is presumably complicated. However, this reference does not at all describe or suggest the construction. When the construction gets complicated like that, the production cost of the image forming apparatus becomes high.
In the fourth related art, the cartridge rotates while the conductive terminal of the apparatus main body keeps contact with the conductive terminal wound on the entire outer peripheral portion of the cartridge. Therefore, contact defect is likely to develop between these conductive terminals. When such a contact defect occurs between the conductive terminals, communication cannot be conducted smoothly between the semiconductor memory member of the cartridge and the CPU of the apparatus main body. Because the conductive terminal of the terminal is completely exposed, static electricity flows through the conductive terminal, for example, when a user touches it by hand and the information stored in the semiconductor memory member is likely to be destroyed. The user is also likely to strongly grip the conductive terminal of the cartridge by mistake and to break it.
The fifth related art involves the possibility that when the toner and dust adhere to the bar code recorded on the outer peripheral surface of the toner bottle, the optical sensor fails to correctly read the bar code.